The TV Side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Why I’d Like to See It and the Movie Side Team Up
Regular visitors to my blog know what a huge fan I am of Marvel and I am absolutely loving what’s happening with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It has set the precedent for what strong superhero movies should be and seeing several franchises come together to tell 1 gigantic story is nothing short of awesome! There will be nothing like it ever again! But, while I’ve spent a lot of time discussing the movies, I’d like to shine a spotlight on the TV side of things because awesome going-ons have been happening here, too.
I’ve been enthralled with the evolution of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which continues to see Phil Coulson and the covert organization continue to help protect the world against evil, even after the organization was effectively destroyed in Captain America: Winter Soldier. I’ll admit the early episodes felt klunky at times, but it didn’t take too long for it to find its groove. Watching the unfolding rise of the Inhumans this season has been particularly intriguing, especially knowing that they will soon be the subject of their own film.
Over on Netflix, Marvel’s steadily bringing the Defenders to the small screen, starting with Daredevil. Charlie Cox has done an above-average job of bringing Matt Murdock to life, effectively conveying the constant struggle to utilize his heroic persona without succumbing to his inner demons. Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk was absolutely breathtaking and is arguably his best performance ever! I was enthralled by his presence every time he was on-screen and the final showdown between him and Murdock at the conclusion of the Season 1 finale is still on the very best fight scenes I’ve ever watched. Adding the Punisher and Electra to the mix for Season 2 were very nice touches and I hope Punisher will be given the chance to spin off into his own series sometime.
Not to be outdone, Jessica Jones is quite the great show in its own right and another textbook example of why stories starring strong female characters need a much better presence on the big screen. Having already been a fan of Krysten Ritter during her turn on Breaking Bad, my love for her and her acting chops grew immensely watching this series. Reading about her origin, Jessica is clearly a very damaged woman just trying to live her life the best way she could. Ritter does a superb job in illustrating this character’s very wild emotional roller coaster. The very small bits of happiness she finds get completely overshadowed by the darkness that seems to have come with her powers so often even after renouncing her once legitimate superhero persona. Of course, the great David Tennant did his best to steal the show again and again as Kilgrave, her main antagonist in the freshman season! I mean, just…wow! I knew he was a fine actor being a big Doctor Who fan, but here he owns it in an unimaginable way! Both shows have done a superb job of showing off the much darker and grittier side of the MCU and having the benefit of streaming on Netflix, they can get away with stuff the movies wouldn’t dare try. I am really looking forward to the upcoming solo joints for Luke Cage and Iron Fist as well as the Defenders miniseries, which will see all 4 heroes team up to tackle a threat none of them could handle solo. There’s also some talk after all of this that Luke and Iron Fist may team up for a Heroes for Hire series of sorts.
So, there’s been talk going around for the longest time that the next Avengers movie, a 2-part double whammy called the Infinity War, will be the ultimate culmination of the MCU as it has played out so far. Every Avenger we’ve been introduced to so far (as well as the new ones still to come) will finally meet the Guardians of the Galaxy and team up to take down the mighty Thanos and recover the Infinity Gauntlet. The Infinity Stones have played a key role in tying all of the movies together.
But, hold on a second. Doesn’t stating the ultimate culmination mean incorporating the TV side of the MCU as well? For me, the answer is a most definite yes and doing this movie right will mean including the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Defenders. Now, I know some of you will argue that because the TV side hasn’t done a whole lot to acknowledge the Movie side and vice versa, why would things be different all of a sudden?
Well, I’d say you’re half right. While I’ll admit that I wish the movies would put a little more effort into acknowledging what’s happening on the shows, S.H.I.E.L.D. has steadily gotten better at playing into the events of the movies. As I said in my review of Civil War, the show did a nice job of elaborating on the Sacovia Accords and the final string of episodes this season nicely mirrored the events of the movie. Something tells me we’ll see even more of this next season. As far as the Netflix shows go, it’s going to take a bit more time to merge them with the films as they have been starting from scratch in telling their stories. It wouldn’t be fair to have the Avengers butt in outright and it’s not like there haven’t been little Easter Eggs here and there tying them to the films.
All of this said, I feel Infinity War is the perfect opportunity to bring everything together. From a business standpoint, it’s just good business. Marvel and the MCU is a business like anything else. It’s been said that part of the problem in having better cooperation between the 2 sides is because they operate under separate umbrellas so to speak. While Kevin Feige is the CEO of Marvel Studios (the movie side), Marvel Television is part of Marvel’s main arm and still under control of current CEO Isaac Perlmutter. While Feige has pushed for having the 2 sides come together, Perlmutter has been gumming up the works, leading the great discord between the 2 men. While I’d have to do more research to see if this is entirely true, I must say that if it is, Marvel and Disney can’t be content to let this go on. Imagine how many more tickets will be sold if trailers for the Infinity War films feature the likes of Phil Coulson and Jessica Jones. Fans will go ballistic in the best ways possible! Having the TV people guest star in the movies and vice versa would only add to the huge profit margins! People considering snagging a Netflix subscription might just do so just to watch Spider-Man swinging by Daredevil’s neck of the woods to help him take down the Kingpin. At the end of the day, money talks and bringing together the movie and TV sides of the MCU would be the equivalent of money shouting!
More importantly, from a creative standpoint, it makes sense for everything to converge at some point. One of the greatest aspects of the Marvel Comics Universe has been seeing the heroes come together in unique ways to tackle problems they couldn’t handle alone. Some of my favorite stories from the comics have involved team-ups. Some might see Spider-Man as a loner, but anyone who’s anyone has teamed up with him and he’s been an Avenger and a Defender on multiple occasions as well as an honorary member of the X-Men having many notable team-ups with both the team and individual members like Wolverine. He’s even teamed up with the Guardians of the Galaxy and yes…Howard the Duck! Remember when he tried to join the Fantastic Four in the very first issue of Amazing Spider-Man? Well he’s teamed up with them too on many, many occasions since then with Doctor Doom becoming a shared antagonist. Many stories throughout the history of the comic book giant have brought together various heroes as well as landmark events like Civil War and the Secret War that have brought together pretty much everybody.
I don’t think it’s that big of stretch to expect something similar to play out in the Cinematic Universe. There are just way too many possibilities out there for it not to happen. Putting team-ups on the table that specifically bring together someone from the movies and someone from TV will help keep things fresh, encouraging loyal fans to stay vested while continuing to bring in new ones.
Something that has given me hope recently is talk around the Internet of Marvel finally striking a deal with Fox. Now before you start jumping up and down with excitement, it’s all rumors and speculation for now, though if we ever get any official word you can be sure I’ll bring it to you here! There’s speculation that Fox is watching Marvel and Sony very closely now, seeing how their collaboration on the forthcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming will play out. I have no doubt the film will be a huge success, paving the way for a long-lasting partnership between the 2 studios. Such success might encourage Fox to revert the rights of The Fantastic Four back to Marvel, opening the door for a 2nd reboot with both studios at the helm this time. I personally see this as a distinct possibility as I doubt Fox will want to risk going at it alone again and failing miserably. If a Marvel/Fox Fantastic Four proves successful, they’ll probably be okay with Marvel at least borrowing the X-Men and Deadpool too when they want.
Now like I said, nothing’s official just yet. But, just the fact that we’re talking about this is pretty epic. If this all does happen, are you seriously going to sit there and tell me that getting the movie and TV sides together will never happen?!?!? Come on! Whether it’s Perlmutter, contract or money questions, or whatever, it doesn’t matter. If Marvel can form successful partnerships with other studios, but can’t work things out among-st themselves, then something is seriously wrong!
I personally feel it’s all a matter of timing. We’ve learned that the MCU evolves naturally and methodically. I’d like to think Kevin Fegie views Infinity War as a benchmark event worthy of a true culmination of everything we’ve seen so far. There’s time for him and his team to work things out. After all, this needs to legitimate. I don’t want to see these characters thrown in there just so they can say they did it. They deserve much better than that! I can probably think of several ways right off the top of my head how the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Defenders can meaningfully affect the story and this is what we need to see. If I am not mistaken, several others have expressed interest in seeing the TV and movie side collide. I am sure I saw a video once of Charlie Cox expressing interest as well as Vincent D’Onofrio. I think even some of the showrunners for these shows as well as several of the film executives all want to see this happen. And I can’t forget the comical reactions by several of the Avengers stars when once asked why they’d yet to show up on S.H.I.E.L.D. by Jimmy Kimmel. Something tells me there was some truth behind their jokey frustration. All in all, I think we just have to be patient. After all, the first part of Infinity War is still nearly 2 years away and a lot can happen between now and then!
P.S. No, I didn’t forget to talk about Agent Carter! I discussed in my Civil War review (Read here: http://thatcinemanerd2013.tumblr.com/post/145528695759/the-cinema-scholar-reviews-55-captain-america) how bummed I was seeing ABC pull the plug on this awe-inspiring show! I’ve got the feeling we’ll see good ol’ Peg somewhere in Infinity War!
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